


Montauk

by December79



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:47:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21924643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/December79/pseuds/December79
Summary: Eleven is haunted by strange dreams after the Byers leave Hawkins, while everyone back home starts to uncover terrible secrets of the Upside Down. It doesn't take long before they all realize that their trials are far from over, and the answers to their questions lay outside of Hawkins. The only problem? Everyone in the party is being chased by memories that aren't theirs while the monsters they thought were gone are right on their heels.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair
Comments: 9
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was a story idea I've had since season 3, and it started out pretty basic but grew a lot more than I expected it to. It does draw on the idea that Stranger Things was originally supposed to be placed in Montauk, New York, and just kind of rolls with a lot of other ideas I had for this. There will be quite a bit of a family dynamic among the party members themselves, just because I love the scenes when everyone is together and I wish the show used it a bit more. Anyways, enjoy! I'm really looking forwards to writing this one.

The dream was the same every night. 

She always woke up in the lab, and every night, without fail, it was so vivid that for a moment she thought it was real. Then she remembered that it wasn’t real, that she was free. So she threw open the door of her old room, running down the halls that haunted her mind day in and day out.

Then she ran, ran as fast as she could until she burst into the woods outside the lab. But all of that was normal. It was not unlike all the other dreams she had about the lab. 

But once she got far enough into the forest to lose sight of it, the dream started to change from all of the other ones she had. 

She ran through the trees, unable to stop, and eventually realized someone was running beside her. She could never turn to see who they were, but from the corner of her eye she was pretty sure the other person was a girl. The girl was taller than she was, and fast, but she couldn’t see much else besides that.

Then she slowed down, stopping in a clearing under the stars. She heard Mike shouting, but he was not shouting for her. She could never hear the name he was calling.

Then came the roar of the Demogorgan. And she started to run again. As she ran, gunshots echoed through the forest. But they were always far away.

The sun started to come up as the forest ended, coming to a wheat field where there was a solitary tree far off. Someone leaned against it, smoking, and she never saw their face.

Finally, she heard the sound of screaming from her side, so she walked towards it, coming to a river. As she watched, it slowly turned red from blood.

Then Eleven woke up.

That was where she was tonight. She walked to the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water. A quick glance at the clock told her it was 2:16, which made her sigh. It would be a long time before everyone else woke up and she was not going back to sleep.

This was the fifteenth night and counting she’d had the same dream. The woman running was always female but tended to be a different figure, the person leaning against the tree was always male but also a different guy, and it was usually Mike yelling for her, but sometimes it was…

She took a deep breath, trying to block out the thoughts of her father. Hopper was gone, and these dreams were reminding her of him. 

Eleven looked out the window at the quiet street outside the house. Fifteen days and counting that they had moved away from Hawkins, and she wasn’t used to it yet. Despite all the memories, all the hardships from her former town, it was her home. 

And besides, that was where Mike, where her entire family was.

She took a deep breath, walking to the living room. This house was bigger than the last house the Byers had lived in, and it was still pretty new, so it didn’t feel like the last one did. Maybe it was because of everything that happened in that last house, but it felt...wrong. This didn’t feel like anything at all.

She turned on the television, making sure the volume was down low so she wouldn’t wake up anyone else.

But she couldn’t pay attention. She was trying to figure out what the dream meant, but it wasn’t coming to anything.

All she could think about was her father.

Eleven took a deep breath, covering her face with the pillow from the couch. They had finished unpacking not too long ago, and that had distracted them from talking about everything that had happened this summer, but now they had nothing left to distract them with. So every day it was awkward silence at the table when they were eating with some forced conversation. Then everyone left and did their own thing. Joyce was still trying to find a job, but she had an interview tomorrow for something. The three of them, Jonathan, Will, and herself, all had a certain time of day when they called back to Hawkins.

And they went about their lives the best they could. Which is to say, poorly.

Eleven dropped the pillow, running a hand through her hair. She wanted to go back to sleep, but this dream had happened so many times before that she couldn’t. Eleven thought it was nothing the first time, but then it happened so many times that she knew there was no it could be.

She was telepathic after all. That had to mean something for this.

Eleven eventually switched the TV off, laying down on the couch. She exhaled deeply, and let the memories come. She could only run for so long after all. And these were the times when it came to her. When the fear and the pain came back to her. 

She closed her eyes, and let go of everything else for the time being.

Far away from Indiana, far away from the girl with telekinetic powers, far from the mother who defended her sons with every ounce of life in her body, far from the friends who had been torn apart by distance, far from the lovestruck teenagers unwilling to give up on one another, far from the town where the veil between worlds had grown too thin, something terrible was happening.

On an island off the Eastern seaboard, the lights came on in an old airforce base. A base that had been abandoned for a very long time.

Someone walked through the empty halls, up the stairs covered in mold. Up, up, up, until they turned a rusted knob to the roof.

They stepped out, taking a deep breath of the sea air.

And they smiled as the air warped and changed. As something stirred awake beneath the ground, as something woke from slumber in the ocean. As the veil split again.

The war the ones in Hawkins had waged on other worlds had only just begun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do need to let anyone reading this know that I wasn't sure what rating to put for language and sexual references. There will not be any rape or actual sex scenes, but there will be references and maybe implications. (There will probably be sensuality as well). The langauge will also get worse further on. I just wanted to ask which rating I can use for that so I can edit as needed. Thank you!

Dustin parked his bike out front of the video store with about two dollars and thirty cents in his pocket, along with a list of three films, each a request put in by his friends. That meant he’d have to decide which one to get, which also meant two people would be pissed off at him no matter what.

When he got in, he was met with the familiar greeting of, “Henderson!”

Steve was behind the counter, grinning like a dope. Dustin waved, smiling as he pulled the list out.

“I’m here to get a movie,” he said.

“Then don’t ask the dufus,” a girl said. “That’s my job. He just has to look pretty behind the register.”

Robin came out from behind the shelf where she was putting up new movies. “What’re you looking for?”

“Hey, no, I can help him!” Steve cut in. “I’m not incompetent!”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you, I was too busy remembering you trying to recommend porn to the middle aged woman who just wanted a romcom!”

“It looked like a romcom!” Steve answered.

“It was porn and you thought it was a romantic comedy?” Dustin asked, eyebrows raised.

“There was no nudity on the cover,” Steve said.

“What the hell was?!” Dustin exclaimed.

“It’s not important,” Steve said, holding out a hand. “Give me the list, I’ll tell you what you should get.”

Robin snatched it from his hand before he could give it to Steve. She read through the titles. “Wow, all three of these are really different.”

“Yeah, each of them had their own input.”

“Who asked for what?” 

“Max asked for E.T., Lucas requested Raiders, and Mike wanted Halloween.”

“I’m assuming you guys have seen all of them?” Robin asked.

“Of course,” Dustin answered. “But for some reason none of us own them, and no movies we do own are good enough.”

“How much money do you have?”

He pulled the two crinkled bills and the change from his pocket. Prior to his contrary belief, Dustin actually had two dollars and thirty four cents with him.

“Well, you can actually get all three with that,” Robin said. “Fifty cents a movie.”

“Oh thank God,” Dustin said. “No matter what happened someone would be mad at me.”

“Who’s choice would you have gone with?” Steve asked.

“Probably Max,” Dustin said. “Mike and Lucas are all bark. She would actually kill me. Remember what she did when you were beat up?”

“I don’t think I’ve heard this story,” Robin said, hopping up on the counter. 

“It’s nothing,” Steve said quickly.

“Just another time Harrington got the shit beat out of him,” Dustin cut in. “By Billy.”

Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed. Dustin wished he could take back the words. It had only been about two weeks since they moved, and almost three months since everything happened. But it didn’t matter. The events of this past summer had been worse than the other times. Bloodier, scarier, any terrible adjective Dustin could think of described it all.

“Well, that sounds like Steve,” Robin finally said, clearing her throat. “I’ll get those for you.”

As she walked away, Steve looked over at Dustin.

“How are the others doing?” he asked.

“You know,” Dustin said, shrugging. “Not...good. Better, but definitely not good. What about you guys?”

“I’m okay,” he said. “I think Robin is. She and I don’t talk about any of it much.”

“Yeah.” Dustin rubbed the back of his head. “It...I don’t know.”

That summed it up pretty well. No one really knew what to do or say about anything. And it wasn’t like they had any adults to consult anymore, what with the chief being dead and Joyce Byers a long ways away. In fact, that put Steve in the position of oldest person of their party still in Hawkins, and despite everything Dustin still wasn’t sure that was a position he was qualified for.

Robin came back, casually shoving Steve away from the register. Dustin handed her two dollars as she pulled out the change for him. 

“Are you guys just having a movie night?” she asked.

“Yeah, you know, it’s Friday,” he said. “We don’t have any homework, and we...eh, we don’t feel like anything else.”

Ever since Will left they hadn’t wanted to start another campaign. It didn’t feel right. So they went out and did normal stuff to the best of their ability. Lucas and Max were doing okay for themselves; they were able to work out the things that made Max dump him eight times in the past year. Dustin had long since gotten over his crush for her, but now he wondered why he ever thought he had a chance. Looking at her and Lucas it became clear the two had been made for each other. 

Besides, he had Suzie! Cerebro still worked great, and they had set up that he would call her after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, as well as at 3:30 on Saturdays and Sundays. She hadn’t really questioned anything that happened a few months ago. He wondered sometimes what she thought of him asking her for a random number in order to “save the world.” He knew she figured it was all a game, and he didn’t want to bring it up considering it was a minefield that would eventually lead to him telling her the truth, her not believing him, and then leaving him for some Mormon guy in Utah. 

Or maybe he was being dramatic.

He took the movies, stuffing them in his backpack. Then he saluted his friends, saying bye.

“Tell the other dumbasses we say hi!” Steve called.

“Will do cap’n.”

They had all decided to start calling him that simultaneously. He wasn’t sure who started it, but his best guess was Robin. They may not have worked in the ice cream store anymore, but no one cared too much.

Dustin rode back to Mike’s house. Recently, they had alternated between there, Dustin’s house, and Lucas’. Dustin’s was because it had no one else in it but his mom and a cat, Mike’s because he had the best basement, and Lucas’ because it had Erica who, no matter what she said, did want to see them. 

But not Max’s house. No, they didn’t go there. Max barely even went there. She hung out with them after school until right up on her curfew, then hauled ass to school the next morning. Anywhere she could be that wasn’t her house, that was probably where Max was.

Dustin understood why. Billy had been a terrible person, and he had abused her for the entire time they knew one another. But he knew his death had hit her hard. The house, his room, Billy’s father, (who from her accounts was a grade A asshole) all of it managed to crack Max’s unbreakable exterior.

He pulled into Mike’s driveway just as it started to drizzle outside. They had left the garage unlocked for him, so he walked his bike in. Inside, he was greeted by Karen, who gave him a smile and told him they were, “already set up in the basement.”

Sure enough, all three of his friends had set up pillows and blankets in front of the old television set with popcorn and sodas at the ready. 

“What’d you get?” Lucas asked, arm slung around Max’s shoulders.

“I got all three,” Dustin said. “Turns out they’re cheaper than we thought.”

“How’s Batman and Robin doing?” Mike said, his tone lighter than it had been that morning. That meant he must have already called El today. 

“They’re exactly the same,” Dustin answered, tossing him the backpack. “You guys can pick which one we watch first.”

They did three way rock, paper, scissors, which Lucas lost when he did scissors while Max and Mike did rock. Then Max beat Mike with a paper over rock.

“You can’t do the same thing twice in a row,” she said, pulling E.T. from Dustin’s bag.

“You can’t do the same thing twice in a row,” Mike mocked.

“Oh, very mature,” Max shot back, but she was smiling. The two had started to become better friends. At least, they weren’t getting into arguments every few minutes. 

She switched the lights off too, and Dustin found a comfortable spot away from the lovebirds.

For a few minutes, everything was fine. The rain was starting to pick up outside.

It was at the first roll of thunder that Dustin hissed, grabbing his head.

“You okay man?” Mike asked, eyebrows raised.

“Fine, fine, just...it hurt,” Dustin said. “Must have gotten...dizzy.”

“From what?”

“I dunno, the thunder might of...scared me,” he finished lamely.

“Okay,” Mike said slowly, turning back to the movie with a worried look still on his face.

Dustin clenched his fists in the blanket, trying to keep his breathing steady. The pain from his head had gone, but it had been replaced by a sharp ache in the middle of his stomach. He wiped sweat from his face. Was it hot down here? He hadn’t thought it was…

Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had gotten some kind of stomach bug. That was fine, he could stay in over the weekend. Everything was just…

He blinked, and the lights went out.

Power outage. It had to be.

Except…

Except the others were gone. He was alone in nothing but darkness. And suddenly the ground rose up to meet him and he was falling, falling, falling-

He hit the ground hard, the sky above him gray and overcast. Shouts echoed in his ears all around him.

Slowly, Dustin managed to climb to his feet. He was standing in the middle of a field of wheat, and it was…

Flickering in and out of reality were other people, fighting. They came and went so fast he didn’t have any time to notice anything about them.

The pain in his stomach suddenly became so intense he had to grab it.

But…

Dustin’s eyes widened and he drew his hand back. It was covered in warm blood.

He looked down.

There was a hole torn in his stomach, blood rushing from it. 

That was all he managed to see before his eyes flew open, and he was in the basement once more. Except he was looking at…

His friends. These were his friends, bent over him, trying to get him to wake up.

“Oh thank God,” Max said. “We thought you were having a stroke.”

Dustin grabbed her arm, stopping her from saying anything else. All three stiffened, waiting for what he had to say.

“I think something’s wrong,” he said.

They helped him sit up, then forced him to recount what had happened. When he finished, it was clear they didn’t think much of it.

“I mean, maybe you are sick,” Lucas said. “And you’re hallucinating.”

“What the hell would I be sick with to hallucinate like that?!” Dustin exclaimed. “No, it has to be something. Maybe...maybe it’s El, or some other telepathic person!”

“Trying to tell you what?” Mike asked. “That didn’t seem like a very understandable message.”

“I don’t know,” Dustin said, frustrated.

“You’re sweating a lot,” Max pointed out. “Maybe just...just try to take it easy. We can see if it happens again, then maybe it’s a problem. But I’m with Lucas. I think you’re hallucinating from some sort of bug.”

Dustin huffed, walking over to the couch. He didn’t want to talk anymore if they wouldn’t believe him.

But someone would.

Because upstairs, Nancy Wheeler was frantically calling her boyfriend to tell him she had had what could only be described as a vision.


	3. Chapter 3

“Come on, pick up,” Nancy muttered. “Pick up, pick up.”

The line clicked, and Joyce’s voice came over the phone. “This is the Byers residence.”

“Joyce!” she exclaimed, probably a bit too loudly. 

“Uh, Nancy, hi!” the other woman said, sounding surprised. “What are you calling about?”

“I ne-I want to talk to Jonathan,” she said, figuring need sounded a bit too urgent and Joyce would pick up that something was wrong. 

“Oh sure, just give me a moment.” She heard Joyce yell for him.

“How’s everything coming along?” Nancy asked, deciding to make small talk.

“We’re all moved in,” Joyce said. “The kids are going to start school next week, and I have a job interview coming up.”

“That’s great!” Nancy said, and she did mean it. No matter how much she wished they hadn’t moved, she was happy they were okay where they had settled in.

“Oh, here he is, bye Nancy!”

“Bye Joyce!”

“Hey.” His familiar voice instantly helped to relax her clenched spine. “Is everything okay?”

She had called him when she got home from school, as she got home a bit earlier than Mike and that was her time to call. Sometimes though they did call late at night when everyone else in both their houses had gone to sleep. They didn’t do anything weird; just talked about all the things they did when he was still here.

But he had this intuition she had never fully understood. Jonathan could sense something was wrong, that this wasn’t a regular call.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said. “I just wanted to talk.”

“Oh, okay,” he said, still sounding unsure. 

“I stopped by The Rabbit Hole today.”

For a moment, the line was quiet. Then he spoke, any uncertainty gone. “Really?”

“Yeah, it’s gone to shit,” she said. 

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Well, remember that problem Will had?” she asked, praying he understood which one she meant. “Ah, let me think, when was it? Oh yeah, I think it was just last year. He got sick from the berries we thought were raspberries?”

“Oh, and he had the weird hallucinations?” Jonathan said.

“Yeah, those!” Nancy answered. “Well, I made the same mistake.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, fear lacing his voice.

“I’m fine now,” she said. “Though, uh, my mom probably thought I was high.”

“Technically you were, right?”

She laughed a little. “Yeah, I guess so. Will wasn’t lying though. The hallucinations are batshit crazy. I felt like I was running through the woods, but looking back on it I’m sure I was walking. And I thought someone else was there. Then I came out to a giant wheat field, like something in a Greek mythology book. I think you were there too.”

“Was I?” he asked.

“Yeah, leaning against a tree, smoking,” she said. “I heard people shouting for me too, though I’m not sure who they were. Oh, and I saw a river turn to fucking blood. How weird is that?”

“That is weird,” he answered. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”

“Nah, I’m fine now,” she said. “What do you think of all that?”

“I think I’m gonna have to hurry on back,” Jonathan said. “You miss me so much you’re doing drugs.”

She made an indignant noise, laughing despite the situation. “I didn’t do drugs.”

“Ah, but you do miss me.”

“I have been transported to the lives of the women before me who’s lovers went off to war,” she teased. “Oh, when shall my bonnie lad return home?”

“You can’t see me, but I am saluting right now,” he said. “I will come back soon as I can, fairest lady.”

“I expect to have Shakespearen sonnets recited to me upon your return.”

“Anything for you.”

“Well, that was about all I have to tell you,” she said. “Thought you’d find it interesting. Can you ask Will if he has any other idea of how to help if I get sick again?”

“Yeah, I’ll keep you updated,” Jonathan said.

“Thanks,” she answered. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, tone becoming softer. They could save the world, they could fight and bleed, they could banter, but this, this gentle, sweet, kind boy, that was the Jonathan Byers she fell in love with.

Nancy smiled a little.

They said goodbye, and after she hung up, she flopped back on the bed.

The Rabbit’s Hole sounded like a restaurant's name or something. They had ensured it did. When in actuality, that was code for the clearing where they shot cans together, and then the tree where she had been pulled into the Upside Down. Will’s berry induced hallucinations were the visions of the Mindflayer.

And Nancy had just had one herself.

She hadn’t used code on the vision itself. That was what she remembered from it. But they had ensured they had some sort of way to talk about certain things without actually talking about them. Maybe the lab was gone for good, but she didn’t trust that certain people from it weren’t still out there, or even the Russians from this past summer.

She remembered one more part to the vision she had forgotten to mention, just because it seemed to be such a random detail in the background. So random, in fact, that she had forgotten until just now.

Singing. Always far away. But if she thought about it, she could remember hearing Dustin and his girlfriend’s rendition of Neverending Story. But all the others, she didn’t know. One song had been a beautiful female voice singing in a language she wasn’t sure she had ever even heard before.

Nancy rubbed her face. She had been getting ready to just lay down and write on her own for a few minutes, then go to sleep, when her entire body had seized up. The world had gone dark for a moment, and suddenly came back into focus. Then she was there, in that forest. She wasn’t sure if it was the one in Hawkins. It looked like it. But it was also the most typical looking woods of all time and could be anywhere in the world with a temperate climate.

Her immediate reaction had been to call Jonathan, because she was so used to having him there. It wasn’t that she couldn’t function on her own; she could do that just fine, she just liked working with him as a team better. They also had a pretty consistent track record of cool shit. Fight monsters? Check. Take down an entire government facility? Check. Hook up in the process? Hell yes, check. Survive being chased by their Mind Flayer-ified coworkers? Check. They were doing pretty good at this rate.

She didn’t know what it meant. Nancy had gone through everything she did that day, trying not to jump to conclusions. But she hadn’t eaten or drank anything that would induce a hallucination, especially not one so strong. She didn’t want to assume it was something to do with the Upside Down, since nothing in the vision related to the Upside Down specifically, but she didn’t know what else it could possibly be.

Besides, at this point she had accepted that it was easier to just assume anything weird had to do with the Upside Down. If it was wrong, then it was better to be safe than sorry anyways, and if it was right then they all had a head start on it. 

She should talk to Mike and his friends. But they were having a movie night. She didn’t want to ruin tonight for them.

They were spending the night. She’d just tell them in the morning. Yeah, yeah that worked. 

And if Jonathan was going to talk to Will, and then inadvertently Eleven, she would just have to talk to Robin and Steve. That would be the whole gang, wouldn’t it? Well, not Joyce, but as much as she doubted Jonathan, Will, or Eleven would tell her she’d end up figuring it out anyways. And of course there was Lucas’ younger sister Erica, but she wasn’t going to involve her in this any more than she would have to. Despite her courage over the summer, they had all decided to let Erica be a kid as much as possible.

Nancy got out her notebook, opening to a new page. She started to write quickly, trying to recount every detail of the vision with as much description as possible. The more she thought about it, the more small things popped out at her. Like the crow cawing in the trees. Or how badly her left leg hurt when she was running. Or how the person running next to her was shorter than she was. Or how Jonathan, if it was him against the tree, had been wearing a long, dark green coat.

Nothing about the Upside Down. Not that she could decipher, save for maybe the river of blood. Even the forest, though dark, was not the forest of the alternate world. It was just nighttime. In fact, (and she wrote this down) she remembered it actually being kind of warm. So yeah, Upside Down was out. She still felt the chill of that place in her nightmares. 

Nancy finally decided to set her notebook down and shut off the light. But she didn’t fall asleep.

She tossed and turned for hours, mind racing as she tried to not only figure out what the vision meant, but what it meant that she had it in the first place. She wasn’t coming to anything.

Finally, she managed to fall asleep. But she did dream.

She dreamt of masquerade balls and hedge mazes. Of blood soaked roses and old colt guns. She dreamt of magic and circuses.

And she dreamt of pain. Horrible, gut wrenching pain. 

Pain so terrible, she woke up crying.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick disclaimer, I completely forgot that Eleven didn't have her powers at the end of season 3 when I wrote this chapter, and I don't give an explanation for why she has them back, so just roll with it. Thanks!

Mike woke up on the floor of his basement, already checking his watch for the time. 

Eleven would be starting at a school next week, (she said Joyce had ensured she and Will were in the same classes so he could help her if there was anything she didn’t understand) and that meant they didn’t have much time to continue these early morning talks.

He glanced over at his friends, all of whom were still sound asleep. Even Dustin, after that weird episode last night. 

Slowly, he got up and went to the phone. Then he remembered that probably wasn’t a great idea, since they would hear it ringing and get really angry. 

So he went upstairs. It was still early enough, and a Saturday, so neither his parents nor his sisters were up. Mike grabbed the phone, settling onto the couch before dialing the number he already knew by heart.

It rang three times before she picked up. They had agreed to start calling at least twice a day; once in the morning and once at night. It had been working out well for them.

“Good morning,” she said.

Instantly, Mike felt better. He wasn’t even sure what had been wrong. Maybe between the pain of them moving away and the fear he had from Dustin had made him feel a bit more on edge. But the moment he heard Eleven’s voice, all of that went away.

“Good morning El,” he answered, smiling a little.

“How are you?”

“I’m good, how are you?”

She was quiet for a moment, then said. “I’m okay.”

“Is something wrong?” Immediately, his heart started to pound with adrenaline. If something or someone had hurt her-

“Nightmares,” El said, then seemed to remember that wasn’t a full sentence. “I’ve been having nightmares.”

“Oh,” Mike said. “About...what?”

He felt like an idiot for the question, but he figured it was valid. El had a lot of nightmare fuel after all, between the lab, that first fall when Will had gone missing, closing the Gate the following fall, and everything that had happened in the past summer. Or maybe she just had a nightmare. That was always possible too, though he seriously doubted it. He hadn’t had a normal person nightmare for three years. Normal person being some sort of monster that will scare you awake but you won’t be afraid of after, considering you know it’s not real. The chief told them a bit about this, and turns out they all had PTSD. How fun.

“The lab,” she said. “At first. Then I leave and I run through a forest. And I hear you yelling for me, but then the Demogorgan so I keep running until I come to a field. Then I see a river of blood, and I wake up.”

“Uh…” Mike scrambled for something to say, since she was clearly upset. He considered going back to the PTSD thing, but he really didn’t want to bring up Hopper to her, as it had only been three and a half months. “Maybe...You’ve had nightmares about the lab before, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, maybe this is a good thing then!” he said. “Maybe the dream signifies that you’re finally letting go of all the pain from there.”

“No.”

“Yeah, definitely not, I just didn’t want you to be afraid.”

“That is very sweet,” she said, and it sounded like she was smiling. Mike could see her in his head; the sun caught in those few golden strands of her hair, her eyes lighting up as her whole face gave in to that bright smile. A smile that didn’t cover up the trauma, but was all the stronger because it existed in spite of it. “But I think it may mean something.”

“What do you think?” Mike asked.

“That’s the problem!” It sounded like she was flopping onto a couch before she spoke again. “I don’t know. But as you know, I am telepathic.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I’m aware.”

“So maybe someone is sending me a message,” she said. “Maybe...What if one of the other kids are out there?”

“Like, other numbered ones, from the lab?”

“Exactly!”

“I thought they all died,” he said. “Except for that Kali girl. But you said she had different abilities right? Wouldn’t we be looking for someone with powers similar to your’s?”

She had told him all about Chicago. In fact, Mike was pretty sure he was the only one she had told. He would never admit it, but it made him feel very special. She had a way of doing that.

“I don’t know,” Eleven said. “I was young when Kali was taken away. I didn’t even remember her. What if the other kids are the same way?”

“Where are they then?” Mike asked.

“That I don’t know,” she answered. “What if that’s the point of the dream? To send me a message?”

“I think-”

He heard footsteps, so he cut himself off as Nancy walked down the stairs. His sister looked absolutely exhausted, with her hair a mess and dark spots under her eyes. 

“Mike?” she said, confused. “What are you doing?”

“I’m uh, talking to El.”

“Who is it?” Eleven asked.

“Nancy,” Mike answered.

“I need to talk to you guys,” she said. “All of you. El included.”

“She says she needs to talk to us,” Mike said. “So, can I just call you back downstairs and we’ll hear what she has to say.”

Before El could answer, Nancy said, “No.”

“No?” Mike echoed. “I thought-”

“I don’t want to risk the lines being bugged,” she said. “Ask Eleven if she can do her spy thingy in the void.”

He did. El was quiet for a moment, clearly just as confused as he was.

“Yes,” she finally said. “Yes, I can.”

Mike nodded to his sister. Nancy breathed what he took to be a sigh of relief.

“Okay, how long will it take?” Mike asked.

“I’m setting my watch for twenty minutes,” Eleven said. “You do the same. Start talking when that is up.”

“Ready?”

“Yeah. Go.”

They both started the timer on their watches, and Mike hung up with the promise of calling her back when this ended. 

“Nancy, what the hell is going on?” he asked, as she walked past him to the basement. She had her notebook with her, which he hadn’t even noticed.

“I’m going to explain,” she said, shaking his friends awake. Considering it was around 7:00 in the morning, they all made indignant noises. 

“Come on you guys,” Nancy said. “You have to wake up.”

Finally, all three of them sat up, still bleary eyed.

“What’s going on?” Lucas asked, voice thick with sleep.

“There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Talk-” Max yawned. “Talk away.”

“We have to wait for El,” she said.

“El?!” That woke them up.

“Is she here?” Dustin asked. 

“No, but she will be,” Nancy answered. “In a few minutes. Well, not actually here, but she will be able to see us.”

“What is this about?” Max asked. “And why can’t we just talk with her on the phone?”

“Because the line might be bugged.”

“Whoa, wait a second,” Lucas said. “Is this about-”

“Maybe,” Nancy said. “And maybe not. I don’t know.”

Dustin looked uneasy. Mike understood why, but he still wasn’t entirely sure both of them hadn’t just had some sort of sick, feverish nightmare.

Finally, his watch beeped, letting him know the twenty minutes were up. 

“Uh, El?” he said. “If you can see us, can you give us some sort of sign? It’s just, sometimes we can sense you and I just want to be sure before-”

He was stopped by the ghost sensation of someone’s lips on his. Mike took a shuddering breath, looking up at where she would be if she was here.

“Okay,” he said softly, smiling a little. “Well then. Nancy?”

His sister shifted, flipping her notebook open. “El, when this is done, will you tell Will?”

There was no response, obviously. 

“I’ll hope that’s a yes,” Nancy said. “Here’s what you need to know.”

Eleven sat down in the void next to them as Nancy started to talk. Mike was still a little red around the ears from the kiss. She didn’t even know if it would work. It hadn’t felt right, necessarily. He was very cold here. Not like in real life, when he was warm and alive.

Nancy said she had been getting ready for bed when she suddenly couldn’t move and fell into darkness.

“No shit,” Dustin said. “That’s what happened to me!”

Eleven raised her eyebrows, looking between the two as realization came over Mike, Lucas, and Max’s faces.

“Really?” Nancy asked. “What did you see?”

“I was in a field of wheat,” he said. “There were people all around me, fighting, but I couldn’t see them. They kept sort of...flickering, in and out of my sight. And then I looked down, and...I looked like I had been shot, or something.”

“Jesus,” Nancy said softly. 

“What did you see?” Max asked. 

“I was running through a forest,” Nancy said. “At night. Eventually I come to a wheat field too, and I saw someone leaning against a tree. Then I saw a river turn to blood.”

El stiffened, leaning forwards. She cursed the void and the fact that she couldn’t say anything to her. But Mike’s eyes widened.

“Eleven told me she had been having nightmares,” he said. “She described them, they were...that’s it, Nancy. Except she had the lab in hers too.”

“Holy shit,” Lucas whispered.

El tried to figure out how it was possible. It shouldn’t have been. Nancy wasn’t the person sending the dreams to her, right? Unless El was sending them to her without realizing it. And Dustin had seen something too!

“Is that the dream?” Max asked, pointing to the notebook.

“Oh, yeah, I remembered small things about it,” Nancy said. “Like a crow, and music.”

“What kind of music?” Mike said. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “Like...folk music, I guess. In a different language though. I don’t know what it was. Oh, and there was someone running with me.”

Eleven felt as though she was going to throw up. Thinking back on her dream confirmed it for her; though it was not always her, the figure running beside her in the woods had looked like Nancy. But only sometimes. She was always a woman, but not always Nancy Wheeler. So who were the other women?

“It all has to mean something, right?” Mike asked. “I mean, if all three of you had some sort of vision, and two of you had pretty much the same one?”

El couldn’t remember any music, but Nancy’s story matched her dream in almost all the other details. She hadn’t heard the Demogorgan though.

But that was dead. Right? El had killed the one, and then the Gate was closed. The Mind Flayer had remained, but that was dead now too. After Joyce and-

She stopped the thoughts before they would trail to her father. She wasn’t ready to think about him again. She hadn’t even dared touch the letter he had left behind for her.

“So what do we do now?” Lucas asked. “They’re all far away, and we can’t talk over the phones in case someone’s listening.”

“Then maybe we should meet in the middle,” Nancy said. “All of us.”

“What?” Mike said. “You want to-”

“I want to round up the others,” she said. “And I want to meet them in the middle of Hawkins and Pekin. And then we figure out if there’s some new problem we have to solve.”

They all looked unsettled.

“El?” Mike said. “Will you tell Will and Jonathan, and…”

They all looked around at one another, and she knew they were wondering if she should tell Joyce. 

“I guess Joyce,” Mike finally said. “If you think it’s a good idea. We don’t know how she’s doing with everything.”

“I will,” she said, even though they couldn’t hear her. 

“Where do you want to meet?” Max asked. “What’s in the middle of us?”

Nancy leaned back, thinking, before she said, “Stillwater. At the art museum.”

“What’s so special about that?” Lucas said.

“It’s not important,” Nancy answered. “Meet us there, El. Jonathan knows the way.”

“Oh, I see,” Max said.

Stillwater, the art museum. That wasn’t difficult. 

“When?” Mike asked.

“Tomorrow, at nine,” Nancy said. “Are any of you doing anything that you can’t get out of?”

They all shook their heads. 

“Then hopefully it works for everyone else,” she said.

It would. El knew that much. She didn’t know where Stillwater was, but they would be able to make it on time.

“We’ll have to get Steve and Robin,” Dustin said.

“Of course,” Nancy answered.

“Not Erica.” Lucas looked up at them. 

“No, we won’t bring her,” Nancy said gently.

“Thanks,” he said. “She can take care of herself, but I don’t want to willingly put you in danger.”

Dustin shifted uncomfortably. 

“So that’s that,” Nancy said. “We’ll have to get ready. I’ll go get the other two on board.”

She left, back straighter and steps more confident. 

Eleven looked around at her friends one more time. She forgot every day how much she missed them. She especially missed Max, because she didn’t have any girls close to her age around anymore. 

She turned her gaze back to Mike. She wanted to see him in person. To hug him and hold his hand again. She would trade all the kisses in the world to just be able to do that.

She would see him tomorrow. If this worked correctly.

Suddenly, they vanished before her eyes. All four of them.

Eleven stood slowly. She didn’t think anyone was trying to wake her; she would be able to hear them.

But she did hear something.

It was like...breathing. Yes, something was breathing, panting.

She turned.

It was far away, as the Demogorgan had been that first time around. Something was laying there. Something completely inhuman.

El started to walk towards it, but she stopped short.

For someone had grabbed her shoulder.

There was a brief moment in which she couldn’t understand what was happening. Then it clicked into place, and she turned around.

It was a boy. He was taller than her, and older too. Probably only around sixteen or seventeen. He had a mop of brown hair and big blue eyes. 

She knew him. She was sure of it.

“Who are you?” Eleven whispered. “How are you doing that?”

He took his hand away, pulling up his sleeve to show her what was on the inside of his forearm. 

A 14 tattooed to his wrist.

“You’re like me,” she said softly, looking back up at him with wide eyes. “You...I don’t understand. Where are you? Were you at the lab, or somewhere else? What is that thing?”

He looked up at it briefly, then back to her. He didn’t say anything.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

He raised his hands, and started to move them in a flurry of movements that she didn’t understand.

“Oh,” she said. “You-You can’t hear, can you?”

He shook his head. 

“I don’t know the signs,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head again, stepping closer. He held out a hand at her forehead level. He was waiting for something.

He was waiting for her to tell him it was okay. But what, she didn’t know.

“Alright,” she said.

He pressed his pointer and middle finger to her head.

Eleven gasped as she was pitched back into her dream. Except this time she could turn while running. This time she saw Nancy running, except she wore a torn white dress. Then she changed into Joyce, into Robin, into Max, into Erica. She came to the wheat field, where the person on the tree shifted between Jonathan, Steve, and this boy she didn’t know. And something new was happening. It was what Dustin had described, when the people flickered in and out of reality.

She saw him too. But then he was gone and Lucas took his place. Then it was Will. Then Mike. Mike, who in the brief moment she saw him, was clutching his bleeding stomach.

“No!” she screamed, but he vanished.

The river turned to blood again. But it didn’t end there. The middle of the water began to bubble. 

Something emerged from the crimson currents. Its scaly back was covered in the blood, its luminous eyes were sharp and green.

She didn’t understand what it was. But it was not from this world. 

And yet…

A sea serpent. That was the name she was looking for. This looked like a sea serpent. But there were none of those in the Upside Down.

So where could it have come from?

She didn’t feel any fear as she stepped forwards, still looking up at it.

Then she blinked, and it vanished. Everything vanished, as she found herself back in the void with the kid.

“What did that all mean?” she asked.

He sighed, holding up his hands to remind her. She nodded, trying to figure something out.

“Tomorrow at nine, I’ll be at a place called Stillwater, Indiana,” she said. “Can you come there? We’re trying to figure this all out then.”

He looked confused, and made a circular motion with his hands that she took to mean repeat. 

“Stillwater,” she said slower. “Indiana.”

Now he nodded, taking a step back.

“Be careful,” she said. 

But before he could wake up, she exclaimed, “Wait!”

He paused.

“Are there others like us?” she asked. “I met one, but are there more?”

He nodded, holding up two fingers. 

“Two more?” she said. “Is one of those two named Kali?”

He stared at her blankly.

“Kali,” she said again.

He shook his head slowly, clearly unsure if she had said what he thought she did. But she was sure he understood. 

So there were five of them that she knew of. 

He gave her a small wave, and tapped his wrist before holding up nine fingers.

“Yes,” she said, nodding as well. “Yes, nine.”

Then he vanished as the others did. She looked back over at the thing, realizing it was the serpent from the vision.

She took one step towards it when someone yelled, “El!” and she was ripped back into reality.

She yanked the blindfold off, looking up to see Will. He looked concerned. 

“Is everything okay?” he asked. 

“No,” she said. “I need to talk to you.”

“About what, exactly?”

“I really don’t know,” she answered.

Will swallowed once, then stood up, holding his hand out.

“Alright then,” he said. “How bad can it be?”

But from the fear in his eyes, she knew he knew just how bad it could be.


	5. Chapter 5

Each of them had set their alarm clocks for 5:30 in the morning, and they got up as quietly as they could.

Will didn’t care about the time. He had forced himself to go to bed early and did not sleep well at all, but he was so jittery that it didn’t even matter.

The night before they had tried to decide who would, 1. Come up with the lie to tell his mom, and 2. Actually tell it. Ultimately, he and Eleven had managed to guilt trip his older brother into doing both. So last night Jonathan had told her a partial truth; they were going to meet their friends in Stillwater. They would be back later in the day, but would leave before she woke up. But no one had told her what they would be talking about, or even that anything was wrong at all.

He hadn’t had any strange dreams or visions recently, but maybe it had gotten bored of him. Will had been the brunt of the Upside Down’s plans for two years. Perhaps it wanted fresh blood.

But the Mind Flayer was dead. That he was sure of. He had felt it when the gate closed. It had been like there was a string between him and it that grew tighter and tighter the more pain it was in. Until that taut string was snapped and Will was finally set free.

Somehow though, he didn’t understand how he felt about that. He was glad, yes, that he was no longer trapped by that thing. But there was something so strange in the back of his mind.

Which scared him even more.

“Will.”

He was startled out of his daydreaming by Eleven tapping on his shoulder.

“What?” he asked. “Time to go?”

She nodded. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m ready,” he said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Inside, he had two changes of clothes, which wouldn’t be necessary, but Will was paranoid. Which was why he also had a pocket knife buried deep under the clothes.

He followed Eleven outside, where it was barely light outside. Jonathan was starting the car.

Eleven playfully pushed him aside and ran for the front seat. Will laughed, accepting his defeat and walking to the back. She felt like a sister at this point, which he was grateful for considering she was now living with them. He liked having a sister, especially considering she was his age. It was weird to have someone his age in the house.

“Alright,” Jonathan said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s pray this is nothing.”

“No kidding,” Will said softly, looking out the window.

But it couldn’t be nothing. It was never nothing anymore.

He spent the ride staring out the window at the rolling country outside of Pekin. This place wasn’t Hawkins, but in truth, he didn’t hate it. 

However, ever since the past summer, Will had been having a difficult time feeling anything at all. 

He swallowed, shutting his eyes as he pressed the back of his head to the seat. He took a shuddering breath, figuring he should get more sleep before he got there. This would be a long day. At least he would be seeing his friends again.

And the only thing he felt was fear, because he couldn’t bring himself to be excited about that.

Nothing remained inside him except for ashes and an empty wind.

They pulled into the art museum, at only 7:45. Will figured the others would be here soon anyways, despite the 9:00 reservation time. 

“Is it open?” Eleven asked.

“No, I don’t think it opens for a while,” Jonathan said. “We probably shouldn’t go in either. It would be safer if we stayed out here, away from the cameras.”

Will looked around at Stillwater, which besides the rather large art museum, was a quiet town with quiet people. Just like Pekin. Just like Hawkins.

How he hated it.

“Will?” Jonathan said, looking at him in the rearview mirror. “You good?”

He didn’t realize he had been clenching his fists, or that his posture was rigid and unforgiving. He relaxed, nodding. “Yeah, just kind of nervous.”

“Have you felt anything?” his brother asked, turning around.

“Nah, nothing,” Will said. And how true it was. He felt nothing but hatred and fear. Even the fear was rare; earlier had been one of the first times in weeks.

And when he felt fury, it was hot and sticky out of nowhere. Last Wednesday it had been the sound of sizzling in the pan where his mom was frying bacon that made him have to go to his room and nearly scream into a pillow. Another time it had been the case of hiccups he got. Or the light from the television that sometimes hurt his eyes. It was everything small. Things that might annoy him a little, but barely even that.

He hadn’t told anyone about the anger. Because as soon as it came, it was gone, and that cavernous void returned. 

Oh, and there was, of course, that tugging sensation. He hadn’t even bothered trying to figure that out.

They sat in silence for a while, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Then, at 8:30, Eleven pointed.

“They’re here.”

Two cars pulled into the lot with them. All three got out of theirs, but they waited. As if none of them could believe it was really their friends.

But sure enough, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max hopped out of them.

“Mike!” Eleven shouted, running forwards.

He met her in the middle, spinning around the moment she crashed into him. She buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of him. He was cradling her head, fingers entwined with her hair.

Eleven pulled back, kissing his cheek. “It’s good to see you.”

He laughed a little, kissing her. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Hey, I want a hello too.”

She looked over at Max, her grin growing. She hugged her friend as Will walked over to the boys. She noticed he seemed a little reluctant in hugging them. 

“I need you to come back,” Max said, hands on El’s shoulders. “It’s just me and a bunch of boys.”

El made a face. “Sounds terrible.”

“You have no idea,” Max answered.

They turned to the others. Eleven couldn’t help but smile a little at seeing them all again, back together.

Her smile faded when she remembered that they weren’t all here. Joyce wasn’t, which once again gave her a twinge of guilt, because she just wanted the best for them and hadn’t done anything but try to protect them. 

And her father. Hopper was…

She swallowed the pain again. Then she shook herself out.

“Let’s get started,” she said.

They found two picnic tables to push together and sit at. From there, once Steve, Robin, Jonathan, and Will were filled in completely, they started to throw around ideas. 

“You said this Fourteen is going to come?” Nancy asked. “Maybe he can help us.”

“Does anyone here know sign language?” Steve said.

“Not nearly enough,” Dustin answered. 

“I have a pad of paper and a pen in the car,” Jonathan said. “If he needs it.”

“Okay, now let’s say that he does come,” Nancy said. “Do you think he has more information on this?”

“He has information on something,” Eleven said. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily on what’s happening to us.”

“So some of us are having strange visions, there are apparently five MKULTRA people including El, and sea monsters exist,” Max said. “How fantastic.”

“What do the monsters and the MKULTRA people have to do with the visions?” Robin asked. 

“I don’t know,” Eleven said. “That’s the problem. And the Upside Down isn’t what we’re seeing in those visions. So I don’t know if it even has anything to do with that.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have to,” Lucas said. “Maybe this is some new crazy shit.”

“Well, there doesn’t seem to be a maybe there,” Steve added.

“Okay, so let’s say, no Upside Down at all,” Nancy said. “Why are only a few of us having them? And El’s having dreams, not visions.”

“Maybe everyone else’s just haven’t started yet,” Mike said. “Cause you said you saw us, right?”

Eleven nodded. “I saw all of you.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Robin asked, rubbing her face.

“Something is happening,” Nancy said. “But it’s something different than what has happened to us before.”

“I don’t know if that makes this better or worse,” Dustin said.

“It’s neither.”

Everyone looked over to Will. It was the first time he had spoken since they started.

“It’s neither,” he repeated. “It’s just more of the same.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jonathan asked. 

Will smiled ruefully. “Just more of the same.”

“That is not promising,” Mike pointed out.

“This isn’t about me.”

They all shared glances, no one speaking. No matter what Will said, everyone knew he was bullshitting them and doing an extremely poor job of it.

“So where do we go from here?” Lucas asked. “What can we even do about this?”

“I don’t know,” El said. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do at the moment.”

“Well, there is one thing we can do,” Steve said.

They all looked at him expectantly, and he shifted under their stares.

“We can tell Ms. Byers.”

That idea was met with unease, though no one said anything.

“She’ll find out eventually, right?” Steve said. “And then she’ll be mad instead of us just filling her in now.”

“We should,” Will said. “It’s just…”

“We moved to get away,” Jonathan finished. “And now there’s some new problem.”

“Yeah,” Steve said quietly. “Yeah, that does suck.”

Nancy raised her brows. That may actually have been the most civilized interaction the two had ever had. She looked over at Robin, who gave her a small smile. She had figured when she met the girl for the first time that she didn’t like Nancy. She totally got why; she had been quite the priss before. But that seemed to be a peace offering from Robin. Maybe they could actually introduce themselves. They could even be friends. She’d like that. It had been a while since she had a true girl friend her age.

“So what comes next?” she finally asked. “Are we in agreement that we should tell Joyce?”

No one looked happy with it, but they all nodded.

“We’ll tell her when we get home,” Eleven said.

“So where do we go from here?” Dustin asked. “What do we need to do next?”

“We need to see if Fourteen comes,” El said. “Maybe he can tell us more about all of this. He seemed to know something about it all, and he showed me more of the dream.”

“Did you tell him where in Stillwater to meet us?” Lucas said.

She stared at him for a moment, blinked, then went, “Shit!”

They all looked up at one another, eyes wide. Eleven stood, searching the streets around the museum.

“She can cuss?” Lucas asked.

“Anyone can cuss moron,” Max answered.

“Yeah, but-”

“Shh.” Eleven took another step forwards. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Nancy said, quickly standing. Jonathan stood beside her, both poised as though they were ready to fight.

“A ringing noise,” El answered. 

“Wait, yeah,” Mike said. “I thought that was like, a car or something.”

Everyone else stood up, turning to find the source. 

“Do you think it’s a problem?” Robin asked.

“I don’t know,” El said. She closed her eyes, letting her mind search instead. 

She kept her eyes closed as she turned, pointing to where it seemed to be coming from. “There.”

She opened her eyes to see she was pointing directly at the cars the Hawkins gang had driven here.

“What is it?” Steve asked, stepping away from them. “What’s wrong with them?”

Eleven walked forwards, listening as the ringing grew. 

Then she realized what it was.

“Run!” she managed to scream.

Then the blast of noise energy sounded, and they were all thrown backwards.

Eleven opened her eyes, staring at the sky. There was smoke around her. Why was there smoke?

She rolled over, a scream working its way up her throat at the wave of pain moving sent through her head.

“Mike?” she choked. “Max? Will?”

Her friends were around her, some of them stirring, others already awake. They had blood leaking from their noses and ears.

Mike was alive. His eyes were wide.

The ringing remained, but it wasn’t the sound of a sound bomb. This time it was merely in her own head. But over it she could hear sirens. 

She managed to push herself onto her elbows, looking up.

Someone was walking through the smoke.

He was tall and broad, and carried what she realized was a gun. Eleven tried to shout for her friends, tried to get up. Her powers wouldn’t work, not after the bomb. She knew that much. After all, it had been used on her before.

The man raised his gun, aiming it at her.

And before she could move, a smaller, slighter figure ran from the street, shoving it away. They managed to knock it to the ground, but instead of going for it, they socked the man across the jaw. It barely moved him, but as he took a shot at the smaller person they ducked. They threw their hand, catching the man in the flat of his chest. 

Something happened. Something strange that made him twitch and fall. The figure turned to her.

She saw him right before she blacked out again.

Fourteen.


	6. Chapter 6

She wondered if not ever meeting Steve Harrington would have kept her out of this. Or maybe meeting Steve didn’t matter and it was her own fault. After all, if she just hadn’t volunteered to translate the Russian code she’d be-

Well, not scooping ice cream because the mall would have still been set on fire, but she would think it was just some average fire and would probably still find that job at Family Vdeo.

But Robin didn’t completely hate everything that had happened. The monsters and all the dead people were definitely a part she could live without, but getting to know Steve had been great. In fact, he had been the first person she truly trusted enough to tell him she was gay. She still wasn’t comfortable telling her parents that.

Despite her new friend though, she was really hating this.

Robin was pretty sure she was dreaming. She had never been so aware of the fact that she was either. But this was without a doubt a dream she couldn’t escape from.

And it was exactly like Nancy and Eleven’s.

She was starting to run, when she remembered how they had described their’s. Robin closed her eyes, hoping this would work.

She managed to slow down to a walk.

Now maybe she would be able to discover something that would explain everything that was going on.

“Hello?” she called. “Is anyone there?”

Nothing. Silence answered her, the woods dark and deep. She started in one direction, still turning in circles. 

“I know someone is there!” Robin called. “So come on out!”

Still there was no answer. 

She took one more step, and the ground gave out beneath her.

Robin fell, landing hard in the middle of an icy street. She leapt to her feet just as a car came towards her. She managed to dodge it, scurrying to the sidewalk. 

Slowly, she looked around at where the dream had taken her. 

It was some big city. Maybe New York or Chicago. Snow was falling gently from the sky, and when she craned her neck back, she saw the buildings stretched up to meet it. There were people milling about, enjoying the night.

But it was wrong.

The cars were old, the clothes were old. The items in lit store windows seemed to be for Christmas sales, but they were things like the old-timey radios, wooden children’s toys, all sorts of things like that.

This was not New York or Chicago in 1985. No, it had to be the forties, at least. She didn’t know why she was seeing this, why it even mattered.

Robin felt a tugging sensation in her stomach, pulling her backwards. She walked towards wherever it wanted her, which turned out to be a dark alley.

“Hello?” she called down it. “Are you there?”

Nothing. Not that she expected anyone, really.

But when she was halfway down, the sound of someone running suddenly reached her ears. She turned around just in time to see a person as tall as she was tearing past her. 

“Hey!” she called.

They skidded to a halt.

“Can you hear me?” she said, surprised.

They slowly turned towards her. But they had a mask that covered the bottom half of their face, and a pair of goggles that looked like they belonged on a mountain climber, not someone running through the streets of a city.

“Who are you?” she asked. “Where am I?”

They took a small step forwards. Considering they were wearing all black, from their boots, pants, and shirt, to their long coat and gloves, the only thing she could tell about them was that they were white. And even that, she could only tell from the bit of skin showing on their forehead above the goggles. They had their hood drawn up, so she couldn’t see their hair.

Robin glanced at their chest. The slight indentation made her think the person might have been a woman.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

The woman’s hands were shaking. She stepped away.

“No!” Robin said. “Please, we need your help. We don’t know what’s going on.”

The woman turned, running away.

“Wait!” Robin called. She tried to run after them, but the moment she did, her eyes flew open.

“Ow!” she exclaimed, grabbing her head. A sharp throbbing through it brought back the memories of what had happened. Some sort of bomb had gone off. She didn’t know where they all were now, or how they had gotten here.

She was laying on the floor with a pillow under her head. The others were all around in a similar fashion, some starting to wake. The house was unfamiliar to her.

Over the ringing in her ears, she heard someone talking. It was not a voice she knew.

But then a woman responded, and her Robin had heard before. It was Joyce Byers.

She managed to sit up as some of the others did as well. Eleven was up, and shaking Mike awake. She decided to wake up Steve, because she really didn’t want to do whatever the hell this all was without him.

Joyce walked over, making sure Eleven was alright, then shook both of her sons awake. Robin took that moment to look over at the other people there.

They were both teenagers, both only around seventeen or eighteen. Both were boys too.

One was white, his hair dark brown and messy. He had big blue eyes and a scar under his right ear. He wore a black shirt and a dark green jacket, along with cuffed jeans and roughed up black sneakers.

The other was black, and far taller than the first kid. He had the build of a football player, and Robin could imagine him being fawned over by all sorts of other girls in her class. He had on dark jeans, a white shirt, and black sweatshirt.

Despite how easily the image of girls she knew whispering behind their hands as he walked by, there was something about him that Robin didn’t understand. About both of them, actually. 

Then she realized how close they were standing to one another, bodies angled towards each other. 

She raised her eyebrows as everyone else groggily stood and registered those two other people there. Eleven’s eyes widened when she saw the white boy.

“You!” she exclaimed. 

He smiled, waving to her. He started to move his hands, and Robin realized he was using sign language.

“He’s saying his name is Jamie,” the other boy said. “And that it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Eleven said, her eyes shining. “Are you really like me?”

Jamie nodded, rolling up his sleeve. Sure enough, he had 014 tattooed to his arm.

“Holy shit,” Nancy whispered.

“Who are you?” Robin asked, pointing at the other boy.

“Mark Jones,” he said, inclining his head. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Are you one of them too?” Mike said.

“Yeah.” He rolled up his sleeve, revealing 015. 

“This is insane,” Dustin said, looking between the three. “Were you at the lab then?”

Mark shook his head. “We were in New York. The MKULTRA experiments spread across a lot of states, but only five actually survived that we know of.”

“Who’s the fifth?” WIll asked. “Because if there’s you three, and Eleven told us about Kali, then there’s only one more.”

Jamie and Mark shared a glance. Jamie signed something quickly, and Mark signed back just as fast.

“Are they...not good?” Jonathan asked. “Whoever they are?”

“I guess you could say that,” Mark said. “She’s not exactly a ray of sunshine.”

Jamie signed something to Joyce, and Mark translated it as, “Do you have a pad of paper and a pen I could use?”

“Of course,” she said. “And when I get back, I’d like the full story of what happened. None of you are getting off the hook that easily.”

“Who was that guy?” Lucas asked. “I thought I saw someone before I blacked out.”

“A guard of the woman who made us what we are,” Mark said. “We don’t know her real name. But she wants you guys. I don’t know why.”

“I thought the lab was done with Eleven,” Max said.

“I didn’t just mean Eleven,” Mark answered. “She wants all of you. Ms. Byers included.”

“What’s going on?” Joyce said, walking back in. “What about me?”

“Why us?” Mike said. “I mean, Will I get, but the rest of us?”

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Mark said, looking over at Jamie. “That’s why we came here.”

“What is going on?” Joyce repeated, handing Jamie the notebook and pen. “From the beginning, please.”

They explained their plan to meet up and talk about the visions and dreams. As they did, Joyce became more obviously angry, crossing her arms and raising her brows.

Mark finished with how the woman who experimented on them wanted all of them, and she threw her hands in the air.

“Glad I was finally filled in!” she exclaimed. “It’s not like I care about you kids and want you to be safe! It’s not like three of you are my kids.”

They all looked around at one another, each doing their best to look ashamed. Not all of it was fake, but they weren’t nearly as ashamed as they knew they should have been.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Mark said. “We need to get moving.”

“Wait, what?” Robin said. “What do you mean?”

“We’re going on the run,” Mark said, as though it was obvious. “You can’t stay here. And you certainly can’t go back to Hawkins.”

“We can’t just take off!” Steve exclaimed. “Are you insane? We all have families and lives. We can’t leave just like that!”

“Maybe you don’t understand,” Mark said, voice growing sharper. “You are going to leave because you have no choice. You are being hunted by some of the most dangerous people in the world, and you have to go so those families you have don’t die. You have to go because-”

Jamie put a hand on his arm, instantly silencing Mark. Robin’s suspicions were confirmed with that one gesture.

He scribbled something down in the notepad, and turned it to show them. Written on it were, ‘Please come. We can help you figure this out.’

“Where would we even go?!” Mike asked.

Jamie wrote something else down. ‘Anywhere for now. You will be able to come home when it’s safe.’

“How do we know when it’ll be safe?” Max said.

‘When they’re all gone for good.’

“The Hawkins lab has been destroyed,” Mark added. “That’s one less to end.”

“We can’t just leave,” Dustin said quietly.

“But what if we have to?”

Everyone but Jamie turned to Nancy, but when he realized she had spoken he did as well.

“You’re actually buying this?!” Mike asked.

“We’ve had those visions,” Nancy said. “We saw what happened at the museum. Someone set off some sort of sound bomb. And now these two are also like Eleven.”

“Okay, what if they’re not?!” Mike shot back. “It’s not like we’ve seen proof!”

The lights went out. At least, that was what Robin thought happened for a moment. Until she realized that was wrong. They weren’t off like a power outage. Light was gone entirely; from the bulbs, from the windows. It was darkness unlike any she had ever seen before. 

“What the fuck?!” Steve exclaimed.

A crackling noise started. They all turned towards it, and the soft glow. 

Jamie’s hands and arms were wreathed in bolts of electricity, his eyes a sharp blue.

“Shit,” Dustin breathed.

Mark snapped, and the light returned to the room. 

“What was that?” Nancy said. 

“I can hold light,” he said. “In a certain radius, of course. And Jamie over here is a miniature Thor.”

He turned towards Jamie at that last part so the other kid could read his lips. Jamie gave him a small smirk.

“Um…” Robin cleared her throat. “Is this a bad time to say I had a vision too?”

Everyone looked over at her, and she remembered how much she hated being the center of attention.

“What happened in it?” Eleven asked.

Robin explained the city and the unknown figure. Jamie looked worriedly at Mark, who crossed his arms.

“We have to go,” he said.

They all looked around at one another. And no matter how much they didn’t want to, they couldn’t deny that they all knew that was exactly what they had to do.


	7. Chapter 7

Lucas was starting to wish they had brought Erica. He didn’t want her involved in this at all, but there was something about her being there that was more comforting. He also wanted her close by so he could keep an eye on her. It wasn’t that she needed protecting, but it was an instinct he couldn’t help.

He drummed his fingers on the table where he was sitting. He was there with Max and Dustin. Everyone else was still in the living room talking over their plan. He wasn’t entirely sure how the three of them had found their way in here, but he didn’t particularly care. They could hear and see everyone, the kitchen was connected to the living room.

“I need to call my sister,” he finally said.

“You know you can’t,” Dustin answered. “The lines are definitely tapped.”

“What, everyone line in the world?” Lucas snapped.

“The ones to our houses,” Dustin said, blinking as though it were obvious. And of course, it was.

“Right,” Lucas said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re okay,” Dustin said. “Everyone’s a little on edge.”

“Can we really just leave?” Lucas asked, looking between his friend and girlfriend.

“I don’t really care,” Max said. “But I’m not you guys. I don’t have anyone worth staying for.”

“Not even your mom?” Dustin said.

Max shrugged. “We’ve kind of drifted apart. The only people I’d stay for are all in this house.”

Lucas gave her a sad smile, and she took his hand. He was so glad she had forgiven him of his past blunders. He was pretty sure he loved her. Well, of course he loved her, he loved them all. But he thought he may like, love love her.

That being said, he couldn’t just leave his family behind. Especially when Erica knew the truth of everything that had happened. 

“Hey wait!” he exclaimed, standing. “You! Mark!”

The older kid turned, brows raised. “Yeah?”

“Will they want my sister too?” he asked. “She was involved with this over the summer.”

“There’s someone who was involved and she’s not here,” Mark said. “That’s not good.”

“So they will?!” Lucas exclaimed. 

“I think so.”

“Then what the hell are we still doing here?!” Lucas was nearly shouted. “We have to go get her!”

“I can do it,” Mark said. “If you come with me. Jamie can help the rest of you hold up fort here until we get back.”

“She won’t just come,” Steve said. “She’s like, ten. What are you going to tell her? That she has to run away from home because she’s someone being hunted by people who she would have thought were made up five months ago?”

“Exactly,” Mark answered.

“What?!” Steve responded. “How does that even work?! Is Lucas just going to sneak in and they’ll hopefully get out before their parents notice?!”

“Yes,” Mark said. “Do you all understand what is going to happen? They will kill your families! They don’t care, Jamie and I know that!”

Everyone went quiet when they realized what that meant. Jamie shuffled under their stares, looking over at Mark. The taller boy gently took Jamie’s hand, giving him a reassuring nod.

“So,” Mark finally said, not taking his gaze away from Jamie, “you have to go. Because neither one of us want anyone else to have to go through what we did.”

He looked at Eleven, who raised her chin slightly, pursing her lips to keep her mouth from trembling.

The thought of his parents being killed because of all this, like Benny Hamond, like Barbra Holland, like Bob Newby, like Billy, like Hopper, it all made Lucas sick to his stomach. In fact, it was enough for him to say, “Okay.”

Everyone looked over at him in surprise. 

“Really?” Max said. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t want my family to get hurt,” Lucas answered. “I don’t want any of our families to get hurt. And if we go and defeat these people, then they’ll be safe. Everything will be fine.”

That last part sounded like he was trying to convince himself, and he knew that. But he meant the rest of it.

“Alright,” Mark said. “I’ll go then. You should all be enough to protect one another in case anything happens. You should get ready to leave.”

He signed something to Jamie, who gave him a nod. Mark smiled a little, and kissed the smaller boy’s forehead.

He walked out as several people’s eyebrows flicked up in the room. Lucas realized he was supposed to be following him.

“See you guys soon,” he said.

They all gave him weak responses, and Lucas forced himself to turn away, heart in his throat.

Outside, Mark started up his own car. Lucas hopped in the front seat, taking a deep breath.

“Will everything be fine?” he asked.

Mark sighed. “I think so, kid. I really do. You guys already know how to work together, right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “We’ve had to do it a lot.”

“Then I think we’ll be okay,” Mark said. He pulled out of the driveway. “We’ll have to be smart about what happens next.”

Lucas nodded, trying to turn his thoughts away from what they had to do. 

“Are you and Jamie…” he started to say, then thought differently about that question, wondering if maybe it was a bit too personal.

“Gay?” Mark finished for him.

“Yeah,” Lucas said sheepishly.

“Yeah, we are,” Mark said.

“Oh,” Lucas said, then quickly continued that sentence. “Not like I have any problem with that! Really! I’ve just never met anyone like you. I mean, I don’t mean anyone like you, I mean I’ve never-Jesus Christ.”

“You can stop kid,” Mark said, a small smile playing on his mouth. “I know what you mean.”

“Thank God,” Lucas said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Mark answered. “It’s just fine.”

Lucas felt a bit better. He realized that it was dumb he even had to ask; they were so obviously in love that he was surprised he hadn’t noticed until Mark kissed Jamie’s temple. 

“Are you sure?” Mark said. “That you’ve never met a gay person? In that whole group? Not one of you?”

“Well, don’t tell anyone I said this,” Lucas answered, lowering his voice even though they were the only two in the car. “But I always wondered if maybe Will is.”

“Ah,” Mark said. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas said, suddenly becoming sheepish again. “He’s never shown interest in girls before, but I guess that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Eh, just see what happens,” Mark answered. “Maybe he isn’t attracted to anyone. You guys are still super young.”

“You’re barely older than us!” Lucas exclaimed.

“But I am older than you.”

“Barely,” Lucas repeated, looking out the window.

Mark laughed a little, but went quiet. “I am sorry. For everything that’s about to happen.”

“I don’t really know what I expected,” Lucas said. “This has been going on for three years. I mean, not consecutively, but three years. I guess I wonder why I thought it was ever going to be over after any of those times.”

“Because you were promised it would be,” Mark said. “That was the deal, right? Save the world, and then life goes on. I won’t deny that you guys were cheated out of normal lives.”

“I thought I’d want something exciting to happen in my life,” Lucas said. “Turns out the only thing I’m really okay with is a telekinetic girl. After that, the monsters, the alternate dimensions, the human experiments, I wish…”

“I know,” Mark said. “I wish it all the time.”

“Why are your powers so different from Eleven’s?” he asked. “Same with Jamie. Eleven told us that other girl in Chicago had powers with the mind too. So why did you guys get the ones you did?”

“Different lab, different person in charge,” Mark said. He shrugged. “They used different modes of experimentation. That’s another thing we’re trying to figure out; just what they used on us, cause we don’t know.”

“Who’s the last one?” Lucas asked. “The other person with powers.”

Mark inhaled deeply, hands tightening on the steering wheel. “She’s the one who made us.”

“Wait, what?!” Lucas said, turning sharply towards him. “But I thought-”

“She wanted to recreate whatever had been done to her,” Mark said. “Once again, we really have no idea where any of this came from. We only escaped about a year and a half ago, and have been on the run ever since.”

“How did you escape?”

“We both used our powers,” Mark said. “We had been plotting it for a while. Jamie fried the circuit boards and I took the light of their flashlights. Then Jamie just took everyone else out along the way.”

Lucas sat back, the images of that flashing through his mind. “That’s insane.”

“I know,” Mark answered. “I still can’t believe it worked.”

“So she wanted more?” Lucas said. “More powered humans?”

“Yeah.”

“Did she know Brenner?”

“I assume so,” Mark said. “I never heard that name in our lab, but she did mention Hawkins.”

“He’s dead,” Lucas said. “At least...I think. He was attacked by the Demogorgon, but now with everything going on, I’m not sure about anything I was before.”

“The Demogorgon?” Mark echoed. “Like...in D&D?”

“You play?!” Lucas exclaimed.

“I used to,” Mark said. “I didn’t grow up in the lab. I didn’t go until I was around twelve, so I had a pretty normal childhood.”

“Oh man, we played all the time!” Lucas said.

“Played?”

“Well, we haven’t done much lately,” Lucas said, voice getting softer. “We thought we were too old.”

“Oh,” Mark said. “I get that.”

“I don’t know, it’s dumb,” Lucas said. “It’s not like anyone actually cares if we do play. And we all love it. But Will’s gone now and Mike’s so moody, and...I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.”

“I think stuff just sometimes slips out,” Mark answered. “You know, things you don’t mean to say, but then you start and you can’t stop.”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, thoughts trailing off as he looked out the window. “Are you sure they won’t hurt them? My parents and everyone else’s family, that is.”

“I don’t think anything’s for certain,” Mark said. “But they don’t want them. They want you.”

“But not even to, I don’t know, like get to us?” Lucas asked. “Like to get us to come back or something?”

“Well, they don’t want any unnecessary blood on their hands,” Mark said. “They don’t want to cover anything up if they don’t have to.”

“That’s a lot different from the Hawkins Lab,” Lucas said. “They killed a man just for meeting Eleven.”

“We’ll have to be careful anyways,” Mark said. “We can’t give them any reason to hurt them.”

“But, if we run away doesn’t that kind of signal that we know what they’re doing?”

“I know they want all of us, first and foremost,” Mark answered. “So I’m hoping that’s enough.”

“Is it just because we were involved?” Lucas asked. “Eleven and Will I get, but not the rest of us.”

“I think there’s more to it,” Mark said. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you, Jamie and I know nothing. They were very careful in making sure we didn’t. We did our research on you guys, but we can’t find anything that gives away why they’d want you for any reason other than that you know about all this. And you guys are having weird dreams and visions, so I really don’t have any clue what’s going on here.”

Lucas took a deep breath, trying to figure it out himself. But nothing was coming to him besides that they were friends with El and knew the Upside Down was real.

They rode in silence for a few minutes. At least, until Lucas spoke soft enough that Mark almost didn’t hear him.

“Have you ever seen it?” he asked. “The Upside Down or the monsters?”

“No,” Mark answered. “Have you?”

Lucas gave an empty laugh. “The monsters, yes. Many, many times.”

He tried to give off an air of indifference. He was cool, collected. But he would never admit to them how many times he had jerked awake at night. How he had slept with his light on for a long time because he thought the shadows in the corner of his room were the Demogorgon. Or how he had trained himself not to scream when he did wake so his parents wouldn’t ask him why he was having such excessive nightmares. He didn’t tell them about the nights after that first time when he had gotten up and wandered around his house because he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even sit still. 

No, he wouldn’t tell them. He had no reason to.

“What exactly are we up against?” Mark asked.

“Well, nothing anymore,” Lucas said. “At least, that was what I thought. The Gate closed. The Mindflayer is dead for real this time, I was there when it died.”

“And the Mindflayer was, what, exactly?”

“Kind of like the mind behind the body,” Lucas said. “It controlled everything else from the Upside Down. The Demogoron were the monsters it did control.”

“Then it must not have any part in it,” Mark said. “Right? I mean, maybe the Upside Down doesn’t have any part in this.”

“I hope not,” said Lucas. “That would make this even worse.”

Mark gave him a sad look. He knew what Lucas wouldn’t say. He knew the kid must have been scared down to his very bones of that place, but of course he wasn’t going to tell anyone that. He understood that feeling, but he also knew how important it was to talk to someone. What he had with Jamie was special, because they had both gone through the same thing. They had nothing to hide from one another.

The next half hour passed by in silence, when they finally drove by the Now Entering Hawkins sign. For the first time, Lucas realized what exactly was at stake here. On Monday, he would not be at school. Tomorrow morning, he would not wake up in his own bed. And when they drove out of here, it would be the last time he would see his home in God knew how long.

He hadn’t realized. He hadn’t realized how much he loved it here. This was his home.

And his parents...he would just be leaving without saying goodbye. They would be scared, they would search for them. They would-

Joyce Byers. He remembered what had happened to her when Will was missing. And he was willingly doing that to his mom and dad.

Lucas didn’t want to do it. But he couldn’t help it when tears started to fall down his cheeks. He furiously wiped at his eyes.

But they kept coming.

Mark looked over at him. “Whoa, hey kid, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he sobbed. “Noth-”

Mark pulled over, stopping right by the forest. 

“Hey,” he said with enough authority to get Lucas to look at him.

“Everything is going to be fine,” he said. “I swear to God, or to whatever is out there, that I will do everything in my power to get all of you home. To make sure your life is normal. I promise. On my life, I swear to you, you will be home soon.”

Lucas hiccupped. “But...But what if-”

“No what if’s,” Mark answered. He grabbed the back of Lucas’ head, setting the kid’s face in his shoulder. He rubbed his back as Lucas openly started to sob. “No what if’s. You are all coming home. You are going to be okay. I promise.”

For a moment, they stayed like that. Mark continued to repeat his promise, unwilling to let Lucas feel the despair he knew every single day.

Lucas pulled away, sniffing. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Mark said softly. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Lucas sniffed one more time, nodding. 

“Let’s go,” Mark said, sounding as though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

He saw her in his dreams. 

He saw them all in his dreams.

They were always there, just out of his reach. They were scared and confused every time they came. 

Like how Nancy Wheeler had been spun around and around in the arms of a masked dancer at a masquerade, fear written out on her face.

Or how Dustin Henderson had crumpled under the fire of soldiers he couldn’t even see.

Or how Robin Buckley had chased a disguised figure through the snowy streets of some big city.

And then she was there.

Eleven ran, always run, always searched for the others. She always searched for him. And he tried. He really tried to call out to her. But his voice would not work. 

And she always continued to run.

He had to watch them all die. Every night, every dream, he had to watch them die. He had to watch Jonathan Byers defend his younger brother from armed attackers until both of their last breaths. He had to watch Mike Wheeler freeze in a barren wasteland of ice. He had to watch Lucas Sinclair go insane and take his own life. He had to watch Steve Harrington drown beneath a frothing storm of water. Every night, every dream.

He had to watch Joyce die. Over and over until it all blurred together. Until the pain became familiar. He had only wanted her to be safe, and to be happy.

He had to watch Eleven die. He had to watch El touch a bloodied stomach and fall to the ground. He had to watch her fall.

And then he woke up, and they started their same experiments all over again.

But he was still alive. And if he survived, if he didn’t turn out like the poor bastards they had dragged away and never brought back, then he would be able to get out. He would be able to find them. 

So Jim Hopper woke up every day, and conceived a plan to find his way back to his family.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long since I updated this! I had a bit of a writer's slump, but I think I overcame it. Also, I write super slow, so I'm sorry again. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

Jamie paced back and forth in the living room, twisting his hands. No one was truly paying him any mind because everyone was also nervous. 

He felt terrible that they had to leave their homes behind. But he would fight to get them back. He felt a strange obligation to ensure they found their way back soon.

A touch on his arm slowed him to a stop, and he turned to face Joyce Byers.

“Do you need to sit down?” she asked.

He shook his head. 

“You’re shaking,” she said, nodding to his hands.

He didn’t realize they were trembling, which was probably why he had been twisting them so much. 

He signed, “I’m fine,” then remembered they couldn’t understand him. She seemed to get the gist of what he was saying though, and looked unimpressed. 

“Come here.” She gestured for him to come to the kitchen. 

Jamie was glad that, no matter how difficult it was to get by without his hearing, he could read lips. It made everything so much easier. And he was used to not being able to hear; he had been born deaf. But considering the things they were running from, being able to would be far easier. 

Mark made everything easier. His boyfriend had known sign language because of a deaf cousin, and because of that he was the only person Jamie could talk to how he wanted to in the lab. There they spoke and he prayed he could read their lips, and they forced him to write everything down.

He was writing things down now of course, but if he refused to do so at the lab…

He shivered and tried to rid himself of those thoughts.

Joyce gave him a glass of water. Jamie gave her the sign for thank you, and dipped his head as well. She understood that much, at least.

Jamie reached out for the glass, pausing when he saw the electricity sparking from his hand. He sighed, taking a moment to close his eyes.

He pictured the tree with sweeping branches, a light breeze making them sway. He thought of all the colors of the Louisiana sunset that he had once loved to paint. 

Combined with deep breaths, that image of the place he had once called home calmed him down and allowed him to get his powers under control.

Jamie downed the water like it was whiskey the moment he did get them under control. He thought through as many possible ways to hide all of them, but nothing was even coming to mind that would work. 

Movement caught his eye, making him look up. The four kids, each around his age, found chairs and sat at the table with him.

“Hi,” one of the girls said. This was one of the Wheeler siblings...Nancy! Yeah...he was pretty sure that was right.

He gave a small wave back. Jamie ran through their names in his head. The other girl was named Robin, the boy with hair to rival every movie star to ever live was Steve, and the kid who looked like he hadn’t slept in a week was Jonathan. That all sounded right, so he prayed it was.

We have a question, Robin signed. 

Jamie raised his brows. You know sign language?

I thought it would be a useful skill to have.

Jamie smiled. I can read lips, so they don’t need to worry about not knowing it if you translate for me.

No problem. She turned to the others, explaining what he had said. They all nodded, Steve even giving him a thumbs up.

What’s your question? Jamie asked.

“Have you ever had one of our weird dreams or visions?” Nancy said. 

Jamie shook his head. I don’t think so. But what happens in one?

Robin translated, and the boys looked to both of the girls. Jamie realized they all hadn’t had one yet. He wondered if there was some sort of order, or if they were just hitting everyone in the group at different times.

“Mine was a dream,” Nancy said. “It felt way more real than a dream should though, and I saw things that felt less like a dream and more like...memories.”

“Same with mine,” Robin said. “Mine didn’t have all the fast images Nancy said her’s did, but it definitely felt like someone else’s thoughts.”

Jamie shrugged. I really have no idea. The only time I’ve ever had dreams like that is in the lab, but I was also drugged at the time.

Despite how easily Jamie had been able to sign it, Robin clearly had difficulty actually saying it. He realized how that must have sounded too, as they all gave him a sad look.

I’m okay now, he reassured, which was only partly a lie.

“Okay,” Steve finally said. “Okay, but the rest of us aren’t like you guys. We don’t have powers. So how is this happening to us?”

You’re asking the wrong guy, Jamie said. I know about as much as you do when it comes to all this. We do know the people want you, but we don’t know what for exactly. That’s about it.

Robin told them all that, as Jamie’s mind continued to scramble for answers. But he came to none. As they had said earlier, Eleven and Will he understood. The rest of them just happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong times and got caught up in all of this too. And it wasn’t like the lab was out to assassinate them; they wanted them for experimentation. But even that, Jamie wasn’t entirely sure of. He just figured as much.

Ugh. This sucked.

How much longer until they get back, do you think? he asked. We’ll need to leave soon.”

“It depends on how long it takes to convince Erica,” Nancy said. “But we can hold down the fort here, right?”

Jamie nodded. Eleven and I can probably hold them off if you help.

“We could,” Jonathan said. “We should also pack some clothes, huh?”

Yes. Hopefully they aren’t too much longer, and then we can leave.

Jamie felt his heart ache as they nodded, all on board with it despite the fear and pain in their eyes. 

He stood, looking out the window. I’ll keep watch.

Or something, he wished he could add. He wasn’t really sure what to even do right now, so he settled on just keeping an eye on the street outside. He learned very quickly that it was an extremely quiet street.

Jamie continued his watch though, for the time being.

Lucas walked over to Erica’s window, peeking in to the room to ensure she was in there.

She was sitting on her bed, writing something down. That was weird, but he didn’t think much of it.

He tapped on the window, making her jump.

“Lucas?” she said, walking over.

He made a shushing motion as she opened the window and helped him inside.

“What the hell are you doing?” Erica asked, looking up at him.

“I need you to listen to me,” he whispered. “And not argue. Please, just let me explain this.”

He knew she didn’t want to show it, but fear crossed her face. “What’s going on?”

Lucas took a deep breath, and then started to explain to her everything that had happened. Erica’s eyes got bigger the longer he talked.

Finally, he finished, and she took a small step backwards.

“I’m not leaving,” she said. 

“You have to,” he answered. “We all have to.”

“I can’t!”

“Shh!”

“I can’t,” she repeated, voice quieter. “And why would I even be a part of this? I was involved once, and I never even saw the monster!”

“You-” He stopped. “Oh. Huh, you didn’t, did you?”

“No!” she answered, still keeping her voice low. “I helped find some evil Russians and then that was it! I have nothing to do with experiments and all that shit.”

“But what if you do?” Lucas asked. “What if they come and they hurt Mom and Dad?”

“And what if they don’t?!”

“Erica, we can’t risk it,” he said. “Everyone else is on board.”

“That’s because you’re all crazy!” she answered. 

“Please,” he said. “I don’t want you or Mom and Dad to get hurt.”

She paused, looking surprised at the emotion in his voice. “I-I can’t, Lucas.”

He sat down on her bed, trying to keep it together. It would not help Erica if he broke down again. Not to mention that he hated feeling like this, but he had been on the edge of losing it for a while now. 

“I know it’s hard,” he said. “Believe me. But we’ll be back. Soon, too, they promised that they’ll get us back as quick as possible. And then hopefully...hopefully it’ll all be over.”

“I don’t want to.”

Her voice cracked a little, and he had to look away. 

“I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “I’m so-”

He caught sight of what she had been writing down. It was a character sheet for Dungeons and Dragons. 

“You-Your character’s a ranger?”

He looked up at her as Erica then found any other place to look. 

“I thought it was cool,” she said, nudging the edge of her bed.

Lucas smiled a little. “I do too.”

Erica managed a small smile. “It has nothing to do with you though, nerd.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over how cool you think I am.”

Her mouth opened and she braced her hands on her hips. “I do not think you’re cool!”

“Sure,” he said, but he was laughing. 

Erica’s smile fell off her face. “I managed to get my friends to play with me.”

He took a shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry.”

“What would happen, if they did come?” she asked.

“Erica-”

“I’m almost eleven, Lucas, that’s a year younger than you were when this started,” she said. “I can handle it. What would happen?”

“They would kill our parents,” he said. “Probably our friends outside of all this. Our neighbors if they saw it. Anyone involved with us.”

Erica looked to the door, then swallowed. She walked over to her closet and pulled out a bag.

“You’re coming?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m not letting anyone get hurt.”

Suddenly it became difficult to look at her. If Lucas could go back and change one thing about the events of the past three years it would be her involvement. He didn’t care if it fucked up everything that happened and made their jobs harder. His sister would be safe and bliss in her ignorance. At that moment, burning bile rose in his throat at the thought of Dustin, Steve, and Robin. He felt so much…hatred towards one of his oldest friends for ever okaying her part in this. What the hell had he been thinking?! She was eleven, ten at the time! And yeah, sure, Erica had agreed to it, but he should have argued against it. And maybe now that Dustin was a bit older he had forgotten how young ten really was, and Lucas honestly expected no less from Steve, the guy who had a whole gaggle of kids that he lead into danger, but for the love of God, Robin seemed to have at least some shred of sense! 

But apparently not. And now his sister had to go.

Erica pulled something out from under her bed, which Lucas realized was a pink duffle bag.

“How long will we be gone?” she asked, voice hoarse.

“I don’t know,” Lucas answered. 

She started shoving clothes into the bag, not looking at him.

“Mark is waiting in the car down the street,” he said. “We’ll probably have to go out the window.”

She didn’t answer.

In fact, she had stopped moving.

“Erica?” he said. “Are you okay?”

Once again, she didn’t answer. She was standing, but didn’t even seem to be breathing.

“Erica!” he exclaimed quietly, walking up to her. “Hey, can you hear me?”

He came around in front of her, grabbing her shoulders. She stared blankly into the middle distance, face expressionless with glazed eyes.

“Erica, come on!” he said, shaking her gently. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

For a moment that scared him shitless, she didn’t answer. 

Then she blinked, looking up at him, eyes wide.

“What happened?” Lucas asked. “Are you okay?”

“I-I saw you,” she said, voice cracking. Tears fell down her cheeks. “I saw you die.”

“What?”

“I died,” she said, breath hitching. “I don’t know where we were. But the others were there too. I-I...I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what it meant, I don’t-“

He pulled her into a hug, heart pounding. He had told her about the visions, so she knew. She knew this meant she was definitely a part of it.

“I saw a storm,” she said against his shoulder. “And a weird old church. I didn’t want to go in. Why didn’t I want to go in?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, rubbing her back. “I don’t know. But it’s okay now. It’s over.”  
“There’ll be another one.”

He knew that too. He knew there’d be so many more visions for all of them.

He’d probably get one soon too.

Erica pulled away, zipping up her bag. “Alright. We have to go. I know that now, we have to go.”

“Wait,” Lucas said. “You forgot...you forgot Mr. Stuffins.”

He pulled the worn blue teddy bear from its place on the shelf. 

“I’m too old for that,” Erica said, though she didn’t sound nearly as defiant as he would have expected. She just sounded...tired.

“I won’t tell anyone,” he offered.

She gave him a sad smile, and held out her duffle bag. “Okay.”

He unzipped it, burying the bear beneath her clothes. “Okay. Okay, it’s time.”

She looked towards the door, taking a shuddering breath. “We’ll be home soon.”

She sounded as though she was trying to convince herself more than anything else. But he nodded, steeling himself as well. 

Lucas opened the window, climbing out first. Erica tossed him her duffle bag, then let Lucas help her out. She picked up the bag, looking up at him with an expectant look he had last seen on her when she was a toddler. A look that said, what do I do now? It was something she had given up on when Erica realized she was far “cooler” than Lucas was, which was something she realized when she happened to be around five. He had always been kind of annoyed by it, but now seeing her looking to him made him feel as though his heart was splintering in his chest.

“This way,” he said, nodding down the street. They both jogged to it. Lucas was praying none of the neighbors would see them. 

Erica saw the car. “It’s so old.”

He laughed a little. There was his little sister. And she wasn’t entirely wrong; Mark’s car was old, and the brown paint was starting to peel. But there hadn’t been any problem with it when they were on the road so he would take it.

She climbed in the back seat, setting her bag down next to her. “Are you Mark?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning around to see her. He held out a hand. “Erica?”

“Yeah.” She shook his hand as Lucas got in his seat. 

“I’m really sorry about this,” he said.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s not your fault.”

He turned back around, rubbing his face as he started the car. 

“Let’s get back,” he said.

Mark and Jamie had been taking the one car, but thankfully Nancy’s had not suffered in the sound explosion and Joyce still had her’s. That would be enough for all of them. 

“Hey,” Nancy said, nudging her boyfriend as they folded extra clothes to take.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry about your car,” she said. 

“Ah, it’s fine,” he answered. “That thing was well on its way out anyways.”

She smiled a little. “You have a pretty good attitude about...all this.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Jonathan asked. 

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair,” Nancy said. “I don’t know, it just...I feel so bad for everyone, you know?”

“What about you?” he asked gently.

“Well, I’m scared,” she said. “I’m really, really scared. But as far as being sad goes, I mostly just feel sad for the kids. I’ll miss my family, especially since I never got to say goodbye, but it all...I guess it just felt like it was a long time coming. I’ve always planned on leaving home when I was old enough, and yeah, it happens to be in a much different way than I anticipated, but I always kind of saw this coming.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said. “But you are sure you’re okay?”

“Of course,” she said. “Besides, it’s not like this is actually going to be a big problem.”

His brows flicked up. “How so?”

“This entire group of people have stopped shit like this for almost three years,” Nancy said. “And besides, if worse comes to worse, you and I have fought monsters, brought down government labs, and then fought monsters again. We make a pretty good team.”

“You mean you did all that stuff,” he said. 

She swatted his arm. “Stop that. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

He looked away, a blush creeping up his neck. Nancy smiled a little, kissing his cheek. 

“You’re very cute when you’re flustered,” she said.

His face only got redder, but he tilted his head and captured her lips. “You’re beautiful.”

Nancy smiled when he pulled away. They finished up the last of the clothes that were going in Joyce’s trunk. They stacked them up, walking out to the car.

Jonathan set his boxes in, and Nancy started with her’s.

“Okay, that’s it,” she said, straightening.

He didn’t answer her. He was staring down the street, head tilted to the side.

“Jonathan?” she said. “Are you okay, what is it?”

“I know this place,” he said softly.

“Of course you do, this is where-” Nancy stopped, eyes widening. “Oh. Jonathan, hey, can you hear me?”

“Do you remember it?” he said, looking at her with glazed eyes.

She opened her mouth, then got an idea. “Yes. I do. But I forgot what it’s called. Can you tell me?”

“Ardara,” he said. He said it, “Ardra.”

“Of course,” she said. “How could I have forgotten. This is home, isn’t it?”

“It was,” Jonathan said, reaching up and touching her face. His brow creased in melancholy. “It once was.”

“What happened?” Nancy asked softly, taking his hand. “I’m so sorry, I can’t remember anymore.”

But he didn’t answer. He kissed her hand, closing his eyes. “It’s been so long.”

“Since what?” Nancy asked, voice bordering on desperation. She took his cheeks. “What happened?”

He blinked, eyes clearing. “I-I don’t know.”

“Is that you?” 

He nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. “Ugh. I don’t know what just happened.”

“You had one,” she said. “Except you were actually...coherent. Well, not really, but you could hear me and you kind of answered my questions. You were definitely more coherent than the rest of us have been.”

“I can barely remember it,” he answered. “Like when you wake up from a dream and it just sort of fades from your head. I remember a church though. A very old church that was practically falling apart.”

“I’ve never seen that.” Nancy’s mind was racing. “Adrara. You mentioned a place called Adrara and said that it was once home, but it’s not anymore.”

“Adrara sounds right,” he said slowly. “But I can’t remember anything else besides that. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault,” she said. “I just wish I could figure this out. I feel like the answer’s right there, it’s so close, I just need to-”

“Nancy.”

“What?” she asked, looking up to see him staring over her shoulder, fear etched out on his face.

She turned, catching sight of the figure standing down the road. She was a woman with long hair, but she was standing far enough away that she couldn’t make out any of her features.

“That can’t be good,” she said. “Right?”

“Absolutely not,” he said. “It feels...wrong.”

Nancy felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked over her shoulder in the opposite direction. 

“What is that,” she whispered, not phrasing it like a question. 

She felt him stiffen when he saw it. “Holy shit.”

It was a dog. Or at least something that resembled some kind of dog. The top of its back would reach Jonathan’s chest at least. It had very short black hair and lips peeled back in a snarl.

“We have to get inside,” he said.

“Yeah,” Nancy said, checking to see if the woman was still there. She was walking towards them, and when she looked back, she saw the dog was as well.

“Forget slow movements,” she said, grabbing his arm.

She ran to the front door, yanking him in and practically throwing him in front of her. The panic that constricted her throat at the sight of the dog had given way to a very familiar adrenaline that told her it was time to fight, it was time to protect the ones she loved.

“What’s wrong?” Mike said, standing when he saw the two of them panting from adrenaline.

“There’s someone out there,” Jonathan said. “A woman with a giant dog.”

Jamie’s face paled. He nudged Robin, who translated for him. His shoulders went slack.

“We need to protect ourselves,” Nancy said.

He nodded frantically, clenching his hands into fists. El walked over to him, tapping his shoulder.

“Is she the one who hurt you?” she asked.

Jamie nodded, then made a flurry of signs Robin seemed to have trouble tracking for a moment.

“I think...I think he said the dog is her power,” she said. “She can...she can control it.”

“Okay.” Nancy looked at Jamie. “Will guns work against them?”

He shrugged, then signed what Robin translated to be, worth a shot.

“Okay, we have two in the shed,” Jonathan said. 

“No, you can’t go outside now!” Joyce exclaimed.

“We’ll be fine, Ms. Byers,” Nancy said. “It’s just right outside.”

“We can handle her,” Eleven said, nudging Jamie.

He uncurled his fists to let electricity dance between his fingers. He nodded, though his entire body was shaking.

“What should the rest of us do?” Steve asked.

Jamie started to sign and Robin translated. “Lay low, avoid the windows. Find something to protect yourself with.”

Eleven went to the front. Mike watched after her, eyes wide with worry. 

“Let’s go,” Nancy said, nodding to the back door.

She and Jonathan walked out to the shed, both casting glances over their shoulders. The yard was fenced in, which made her even more uncomfortable.

He moved quickly, grabbing the two rifles they kept in the shed, more out of sheer paranoia than anything else. Nancy grabbed the axe leaning against the wall as well. Both practically ran inside.

Inside, she handed the axe to Steve wordlessly. He took it without saying anything either.

“Did you hear anything?” she asked.

“No, not yet,” Robin said. 

Jamie and Eleven were still at the front door, her listening and him waiting. She reached out to the knob.

Jamie readied his hands until it seemed he was holding two balls of pure energy. He nodded.

She threw the door open.

El didn’t know what she expected the woman to look like. She guessed she was expecting a hideous monster. Or someone that looked a little like Papa; sharp nosed and sharp eyed with a cold intelligence that disregarded all human life. 

But she certainly did not expect someone so...beautiful. 

She was very tall, probably as tall if not taller than Hopper had been. She was lean with long, thick black hair that fell down to the middle of her back. She wore a red dress that fell down to her mid thigh, and black heels. She was also quite young, somewhere in between thirty and thirty five. If she just saw this woman in public the only things that would tell her she was not normal would be the tattoo on her wrist with a number she couldn’t see, and her eyes. The eyes were like Papa. They were coppery and sharp, cold, as his had been.

But considering there was a giant hybrid canine creature standing next to her, it wasn’t too difficult to realize that she could not be normal.

“You must be Eleven!” she said, smiling with a look that seemed extremely genuine. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Branwen.”

She held out her hand, allowing El to see that the number was 001. 

“You-You’re the first?” she said. 

Branwen looked at her wrist, then back up. “From my side of the country dear. Not your’s. Unfortunately the first from your lab didn’t make it.”

She didn’t take her hand, but shifted her gaze to the dog. It wasn’t by any means the most unsettling thing she had ever seen, as it was just a really, really big dog. Big enough that she could probably ride it, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that it was not a Demogorgan or the Mindflayer, so she would not be afraid of it.

“Jamie!” Branwen exclaimed. “Hello dear. It’s been a while. Where’s Mark?”

Jamie took a shuddering breath and gave her a sign that Eleven figured was rather vulgar.

“You insult me,” Branwen said, placing a hand over her chest. “Is that any way to greet your mother?”

Eleven knew exactly what she meant. Not Jamie’s real mother, only in the way Papa was her father. It hurt her to see the way it hurt Jamie, who merely held up a hand with the electricity crackling around it. He looked to the dog then back to Branwen, the warning of him using the power clear.

“Oh,” Branwen said. “Mark’s not here, is he? Your big, strong knight in shining armor, far away from you. What can you do without him?”

“Leave him alone,” Eleven growled.

“No, I’d like him to answer the question,” Branwen said, turning back to Jamie with that smile, except it had turned a bit more maniacal now. “What are you going to do?”

He threw the ball of electricity straight at the dog.

The moment it collided, Eleven threw it down the street. It hit the ground, laying still for what she figured would only be a moment.

“You brats,” Branwen spat, stalking forwards. Both took a step back, holding up their hands to remind her that her power was currently laying in the road.

“What, you think you’ve stopped me?” she said. “You think I can’t walk in there and get your little friends? You think two rifles and an axe are going to stop me?”

“How did you know…”

“I know a lot of things,” Branwen answered. “For example, I know your father is alive.”

Eleven’s heart dropped into her chest. “What?”

“Oh yes,” Branwen said, baring her teeth. “Would you like to see him?”

“My father is dead,” she said. 

“El?”

Her spine stiffened. Slowly, she turned to face the man who had spoken.

Hopper. It was Hopper, healthy and alive. He smiled softly at her.

“I’m here,” he said. “I promised I would come back, right?”

Her breath caught in her throat as she walked towards him. Alive, alive, alive-

Pain raced up her arm, shocking her. She whipped around to face Jamie, who shook his head.

El looked back to Hopper, not seeing what was so wrong. He was here and alive, and-

That couldn’t be possible. Where did he come from? Why was he with Branwen? Why was he so calm about this?

“You’re not real,” she said, walking backwards. “You’re not real.”

“I guess it is kind of a shitty illusion, huh?” Branwen said. “Oh well.”

“How are you doing this?” Eleven asked, whirling around as the dog climbed to its feet and lumbered back over, growling at both of them. “This isn’t your power!”

“You’re right,” Branwen said. “Illusions are not my power.”

Eleven’s eyes widened when she realized it. “No.”

“It’s been a long time.” 

She knew that voice. She had hoped to never hear it again. 

But she looked to the side, where Kali stepped out of her illusion of invisibility.

Mark passed the sign that told him they were entering town. He couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. 

They had to get out of here before Branwen got there. He and Jamie had forgotten to mention the dog, which was something he had been beating himself up about for the whole car ride. That probably would have been helpful information.

He remembered the way to get to their street. He made a few turns, and pulled over.

“What is that?” Lucas said.

Mark’s hands clenched on the wheel. No. No, no, no, she couldn’t already be here. They left her behind in New York, how was she already here?!

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “Son of a bitch!”

She saw the car. She looked over at him. Even from here, he could see her smile. He saw Eleven and another girl he didn’t know.

He saw Jamie. Jamie, who was far too close to the beast. Who would be so terrified. After the nightmares he had of Branwen and the torture she inflicted on him, that the monster did… He was still so scared of being submerged in water, and he bore the claw marks on his back from the dog. 

He had to get to him. And the others, they must have been in the house. It didn’t seem she had gone in yet.

“Hold on, you two,” he said.

“Hold on?” Erica asked. “Why?”

Mark and Jamie had done this once before at the lab. And it seemed his boyfriend knew what he was going to do.

Jamie grabbed Eleven around the waist and shoved the other unknown girl away when she reached out for her. 

Then Mark floored the car and stole the light from the world around them.


End file.
